Wyevale Garden Centres has been shortlisted, along with its partners Biffa and Good Values, as a finalist for this year’s MRW National Recycling Award, in the category of ‘Best Partnership Project’.

WGC has partnered with Biffa and Good Values to implement a colleague engagement scheme to improve operational sustainability.

The partnership worked to identify a number of methods to drive recycling across 140 garden centres and reduce waste, including a “Recycle it Right” education campaign, creating e-learning modules and appointing a task force of WGC colleagues to act as ‘Environment Champions’ to drive the programme forward and share knowledge across WGC’s garden centres.

The effort has engaged and empowered WGC’s 5,600-strong workforce and resulted in excellent improvements to operational sustainability and waste management efficiency.

As result of this partnership WGC has achieved a recycling rate of almost 70%, a great improvement on the 39% before the start of this project, with further plans to exceed an 80% recycling rate within the next 12 months.

The partnership also drove efforts for clothes collection and helped raise funds for Marie Curie contributing to the total sum of over £230,000, which has been raised in just 10 months of the partnership. 

WGC’s work with Good Values has enabled the company to embed sustainability values throughout the business, a driving force behind these results and a cornerstone of WGC’s corporate responsibility policies.

Stephen Murphy, Chairman of WGC, said: “We believe that playing a leading role in addressing social and environmental challenges will give us a competitive advantage, and provides a clear benefit for employees, customers, suppliers and the other people our business touches.

"This partnership has delivered tangible achievements in pursuit of these goals and we are proud of the progress we have made. While we are still early in our sustainability journey, we are thrilled to be a finalist for the National Recycling Awards and proud of our colleagues’ efforts to embed long-term sustainable practices into the core of our way of working.”

Jacquie Irvine, Good Values Founder said:  “Even though we come from three different companies, Good Values, Wyevale Garden Centres and Biffa work together as one team, with one shared objective. Our success is down to the unique skill set each partner brings to the table and how we work together to make our vision a reality.”

WGC believes gardens are intrinsically linked to the environment and play a key part in supporting local communities and more sustainable lifestyles. Through its ‘Growing Together’ corporate responsibility plan, developed in partnership with Good Values, WGC works with its employees, suppliers and British gardeners to be a catalyst for positive change in the horticulture industry and to help address some of the environmental and social challenges that face Britain today. ‘Growing Together’ has four pillars: ‘Nurturing our colleagues’, ‘Protecting our planet’, ‘Sourcing with care’ and ‘Strengthening our communities’.